Hour photo/John Nash Wilton High’s Rebecca Hersch (22 in white) and Zoe Lash, far right, embrace teammate Ally Dejana as Westhill’s Erica Shaulson looks on after Dejana scored the only goal in the Warriors 1-0 first round state tournament win at Kristine Lilly Field on Monday. The freshman’s tally came in 10:30 left in the game, sending Wilton into the second round.

The Warriors improved to 10-7-1 on the season and will travel to second-seeded Newington on Wednesday for a second-round contest.

The win capped off a tumultuous two weeks for the Warriors, who saw three players, all starters, quit the team — one before the FCIAC tournament and two leading up to the state tournament.

“The girls have shown character all year and we just talked about what it takes to play for the school and the history of what the school’s done, and then asked them to step up and show us that character and they’ve done it,” said Wilton first-year head coach Freya Coombe. “I’m very, very proud of these girls. It’s been tough, but we’ve come together well and we’ll keep fighting the fight.”

Despite controlling much of the play for the better parts of both the first and second halves, the game was still a scoreless draw with time ticking down.

With under 11 left to play, freshman Lindsay Groves carried the ball down the right sideline, angled on toward and got and let go a high shot on net.

It didn’t, however, as Westhill goalkeeper Emily Pritchard was up to the task, making the initial save as the ball bounced off her hands and up into the air before returning to the turf.

As Pritchard tried to corral the rebound after it bounced, Wilton’s Rebecca Hersch and Dejana both crashed hard toward the ball — with Hersch making contact with Pritchard before she could reach the ball.

“Did I knock it out of her hands?” Hersch asked. “I don’t know what happened. I couldn’t stop running. I turned around and was like, ‘Where’s the ball?’ I turned around and saw Ally right there.”

Dejana stepped up and buried her shot inside the right post, giving Wilton a one-goal lead.

“Whenever it’s me and the goal, everything gets really quiet and I just go for it,” said Dejana. “Sometimes it goes in. This time, it did. The goalie kind of caught the ball, but was stumbling and (the ball) was in the air.”

After Dejana scored, she was mobbed by teammates.

“It felt pretty good,” she said. “When I scored, I turned around and was like I can’t believe I just did that. That was the tightest hug I’ve ever given somebody before.”

The goal also proved Wilton could break down the wall of Westhill’s defense, which was frustrating the Warriors at every turn.

“It was certainly a relief because I thought we put them under a lot of pressure and at some point you’re wondering when are they going to go in?” Coombe said. “We created so many good chances.”

The game wasn’t over, though, so the Warriors defense had to step up.

Wilton had given up two first half goals against Westhill the first time the two teams met in a 3-2 regular season win, but the Warriors have shut the Vikings down now for more than 120 consecutive minutes of action.

Chloe Zimmerman, a sophomore, was moved to inside back while sophomore Bria Albanese was called up from the JV squad to replace the two players who had left the team.

Both teams had chances to take a lead in the first half.

Seven minutes in, a Hersch had an opportunity to bury a cross, but couldn’t time it right and was unable to get a shot off.

Three minutes later, Westhill hit the top crossbar and the ball bounced to the Vikings’ Claudia Benz, who also couldn’t get her foot on the ball.

A few minutes later on the other end of the field, Brady Faria of Wilton let fly a long shot that sailed just wide and high left.

The best two opportunities for the Warriors came from Andrea Benalcazar, who fired one shot just high and right, and with two minutes to play took a feed from Dejana and had an open net, but again shot it just wide.

The second half continued with neither team able to finish their scoring chances.

Wilton’s Ashley Vitarelli just missed knocking home a corner kick early in the half and on the far end of the field a few minutes later Westhill’s Chelsea Dormand saw her 30-yard direct kick on goal get slapped away by Wilton keeper Hana Previte (five saves).

With 25:30 to play, Wilton’s Groves sent a long direct kick onto Pritchard (eight saves), who knocked the ball down, but no Warrior was close enough for the rebound.

Five minutes later, Groves sent a cross to Eva Greco, who knocked her shot high.

Groves would get another opportunity to set up a score and this time Dejana was there to finish it, sending Wilton into the next round.